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Related to this project: Creating Local Connections Canada/Liaisons locales Canada

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Just had a great time at the Global Voices - Sharing our Vision conference hosted by our partner organization the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation. The conference started with a challenge to youth from the first keynote speaker LGen Romeo Dallaire. It was inspiring to hear his words and his recognition of NGOs being a key factor in enabling change. As Canadians he encouraged us to foster our skills in technology and strong work ethic to become activists and get involved in the field, our communities and in influencing policy.

The conference offered a variety of workshops to enable Albertans to come together and engage in meaningful dialogue on the Millennium Development Goals with locally-based NGOs and their partners from the Global South.

As a partner, TIG had the opportunity to set up a booth and talk with participants at the conference. Along with my host organization, Alberta's Youth VOLUNTEER!, we had sign up sheets for a future networking meeting and opportunities to do further TAKE ACTION workshops in schools and communities. We were very please to have participants sign up and I look forward to following up with these potential partners soon.

I hosted a workshop today entitled the Power of Youth and Technology: Inspiring, Informing and Involving Young People to Help Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Along with Leslie (the ED of AYV!) and Kate (a youth board member on AYV!) we delivered an interactive workshop that had the 11 participants brainstorming together how we can engage youth in taking action on these goals. Wearing different "hats" (quite literally we had birthday hats!! hehe) the participants brainstormed how youth, mentors, NGOs and policy makers need to work together to meaningfully engage youth. The workshop ended with a sense that we need to foster collaboration through both offline and online networking. This will be enabled through a project page I have developed (http://projects.takingitglobal.org/abyouthmdg) and a local networking meeting that will be held in early March.

I am working with AYV! and the GEN practicum students to develop and implement a TAKE ACTION on the MDGs workshop. These networks will really help to create local connections with the youth that we work with to supportive organizations that want and have the capacity to support youth action.

I have a really exciting stakeholder meeting this week on environmental youth engagement that I will definitely be reporting about soon.

Hurray for networking!

JL

February 23, 2008 | 9:42 PM Comments  0 comments

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Untitled
Related to this project: Creating Local Connections Canada/Liaisons locales Canada

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

So January was probably my busiest month as the YEC here in Alberta. But also my most encouraging and inspiring in terms of what I was able to accomplish. The month started off great with the Climate Change workshops in St. Albert, which I have already blogged. Then I moved right into improving the workshop with Leslie at AYV! so it would be ready to implement again. Another reason for us being motivated to really get a handle on the workshop was because we’re hoping the four practicum students at the University, who we’ve just had initial meetings with, will be implementing these in some local schools! Talk about increasing our capacity! It’s a great opportunity for TIG to create even more local connections here in Alberta and facilitate even more opportunities. I’ll have more to report on that in a couple weeks.

The end of the month was probably the busiest as I had a few things planned during Kimia’s visit, then we took off for a road trip to implement the three climate change workshops in Canmore, Alberta (very close to Banff). As Kimia has already did a report on her visit here I won’t go too much in detail, but one challenge and frustration for me was the global gallery event I hosted during international week at the University. To say the least, it was not a very good show of people nor submissions on the global gallery. Personally, I found this event difficult to plan and organize because it wasn’t really in my area of expertise and I wasn’t really able to directly collaborative with someone locally to get support. I think lesson learned on that, is that I should be making direct connections with people that can help me out locally…. I was able to use the display during Global College Week at MacEwan college to promote the submissions and also network with some local grass roots organizations.

My first networking meeting was fantastic from my perspective. I took a very relaxed approach of booking a space at a local coffee shop and ordering food for those attending. I was pleased with the attendance and I think the small group discussion was a valuable way to share best practices and explore opportunities about what we were all doing. We talked a lot about sharing information through networking and those present represented a few environmental groups, action against violence and crime, and as Kimia mentioned a few funders. The next will be focused around the MDGs as Leslie and I are hoping to increase our knowledge base on local organizations that will be able to support us in that capacity. From the success of our Take Action on Climate Change workshop, we’re using that model to develop a Take Action on MDG to implement here in Alberta. More on that to come!

It was also really nice to have the opportunity to discuss things with Kimia. It provided me an opportunity to share some of my own challenges and successes and have ‘in person’ feedback about my experiences. It also provided some context of the priorities of our project and how I need to tailor my own work to meet these goals. From this conversation, I have committed to really focus on translating all of my offline connections to online. I’m going to try my best to do a better job and getting people actually online and promoting the amazing things TIG has to offer… With a little help from Dana, hehe, who has been FANTASTIC so far. Was also fun just to hang out with someone on the team and get to know Kimia a bit better, including her skills in country line dancing 

So the day Kimia left, I actually took off for Banff for the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday had 3 separate classes of climate change workshops in Canmore, so a total of almost 90 youth!! We had each class on Monday to inform and inspire them on the issue of climate change then each class again on Tuesday to develop their action plans. The workshops were fantastic for many reasons, but three I would like to highlight. First we had amazingly supportive environmental charged teachers at the high school that encouraged their students to use their ideas toward a class project! Talk about providing a bit of incentive and support for these youth. Second, we made a great local connection with the Alberta Council for Environmental Education that will likely be able to provide local support, and also has great potential for a future TIG partnership. Third, AVY! has the resources to follow up with these groups and continue these connections. So even though in my capacity at YEC, I would not be able to commit, there is an opportunity for additional follow up meetings with these charged up youth. I’ll have more on that soon. One plus, was that I was able to get one entire class logged on as members on the TIG site, but disappointingly, I don’t think all of them changed their location to Alberta so it may not have been tracked  I hope no one else makes that mistake, as I certainly won’t!

It was so encouraging to see the youth being really able to talk about the different issues and demonstrate why we should care about then and came up with some really cool ideas! They ranged from an all day town event with multiple activities, green friendly fashion shows, organizing a ski trip and selling green capes to raise awareness and in school promotion of solutions. This direct engagement with the classes is one of the most inspiring parts of my role here in Alberta, but I was very happy that we were well prepared with good materials and a structured workshop. Definitely more effective to engage them in really taking action and I have shared all the material we used on our documents site and I hope some of you will be able to benefit from the work we’ve put into it.

That’s all for now, but I’ll have more to report after the conference next week on the MDGs!!

February 13, 2008 | 10:25 PM Comments  0 comments

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Untitled
Related to this project: Creating Local Connections Canada/Liaisons locales Canada

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Returning from a great and restful holiday was met with a very busy few weeks in January. I have been working very closely with Alberta’s Youth Volunteer (AYV) to develop workshops to deliver in schools. We have been working at developing three very concrete presentations that we’re able to use to inspire, inform and involved youth depending on the group dynamic. Our idea is to create one basic “Volunteering 101” workshop, a “Creating Local Connections” workshop that looks at involving youth with ongoing projects and initiatives and an advanced “Taking Action” workshop on a specific issue. Developing these workshops has taken a lot of collaborative effort, but I really think our efforts will prove to be very worthwhile!

And we’ve already had the opportunity to try our workshop focusing on TIG’s current Climate Change initiative. Partnering with the Sierra Club, we delivered a two-day workshop to two high school classes in St. Albert. The first day focused on informing and inspiring the students on the issue of Climate Change. The Sierra Club provided great expertise in this area. At the end of the first day, the students were in working groups focusing on an issue of concern to them and were assigned a worksheet (we had support from the teacher to have participation marks for this!) to learn and think more about their issue. The second day, Leslie (from AYV) and I took the classes through some group work to think about how they might be able to take action on these issues. At the end of the class the students presented a short infomercial on their project idea to the rest of the class. Some really great ideas were developed, and we hope to work with some keen students and the supportive teacher to develop real action ideas for their school. We will be trying to connect with this group again in the upcoming month to follow up and provide additional support!

This past week I’ve been organizing and planning for what will be a very busy two weeks with TIG. I’m looking forward to Kimia’s first visit to Edmonton and have a few things planned for when she is here, such as an event for International Week at the University of Alberta (and the following week during Global College Week at MacEwan College), a networking meeting, additional meetings with some organizations and an NGO Fair. I also have more 3 more two day climate change workshops in Canmore and Leslie and I have been working hard to improve our presentation style. Also, I’m really excited that three students with the Global Education Network at the University will be working with Leslie and me to provide more presentations in schools!

Promise my next blog will not be as far off as I am anticipating lots to report! Stay connected everyone, I love to hear what you’re all doing in your regions!!

January 26, 2008 | 7:45 PM Comments  0 comments

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Untitled
Related to this project: Creating Local Connections Canada/Liaisons locales Canada

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Yikes! it's been almost two months since I have blogged but i promise my life has been full of wonderful TIGrelatedness here in Alberta... Let me catch up!

December was full of great and wonderful things. I hosted an event for World AIDS day that showcased the TIG live chat. We had a great local discussion afterwards with UofA staff and students and two representatives from HIV Edmonton. This was a great opportunity for me to link my department (The Centre for Health Promotion Studies) and TIG. My role with TIG is even going to be showcased in the school’s monthly newsletter so stay tuned for that  The small group discussion was very engaging and centered around the local issue of HIV/AIDS and how the issue is perceived in our community.

I also organized a team for the Dignitas Race for Dignity, with support from my student’s association at the university. The Race for Dignity is a "student-led grassroots fundraising campaign for Dignitas International - a medical humanitarian organization dramatically increasing access to essential HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support, including life-saving antiretroviral medication, in resource-poor settings."

We had a group of 10 students and staff who were able to cycle on stationary bikes in a display of solidarity with the millions of people who do not have access to HIV medications and raised some money for a great cause. During the race, I had the opportunity to hand out some TIG materials and was even able to show the TIG Youth Force video as part of the entertainment for bikers!

My last big thing in December was a facilitation of a workshop for the YOUCAN Prevent Violence Action Planning Symposium in Edmonton. The workshop was entitled The Global Power of Youth Against Violence and had a goal to engage youth in activities and dialogue on global issue of violence and power of young people to achieve social change around the world. The youth worked in groups to further explore the youth related violence issues of one country and their issue, action toward resolving and the solution of their issue in three tableaus. The second day of the conference had the youth working together to plan their action that they will be taking back to their communities. I’m working with the conference organizer to create a project page for these groups to network and showcase their projects.

January 26, 2008 | 7:44 PM Comments  0 comments

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Untitled
Related to this project: Creating Local Connections Canada/Liaisons locales Canada

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

My first trip to Calgary as Youth Engagement Coordinator was full of exciting events. I attended the World Water Day Youth Summit, where groups of youth came to discuss the global and local issue of water and develop projects to bring back to their own community. I had the opportunity of doing a brief presentation on TakingITGlobal to engage the youth in the support and resources available through our online community. I was also asked to speak on the panel discussion with representatives from the Change for Children Association, River Watch, CUSO and Shastri-Indo Canadian Institute. I was able to work directly with one junior high school group to co-facilitate their action plans in their own school. I was amazed at the great ideas and plans they were able to achieve in such a short time. Our group developed a project called “Six Seconds in the Life of Africa” and has a great plan to engage their school community. After browsing around the other project plans, I saw that the group I was facilitating was not the only group of inspired young people. The other projects were just as innovative and well planned. After speaking with the groups of students, it was evident that they knew “why” they wanted to act on this issue, “what” they planned to do and how they would be able to determine if they achieved their goals.
The groups are going to be working toward developing these events and celebrating their success in March. I’m looking forward to see what positive contributions these inspired youth are able to achieve. Overall, it was especially energizing to see group of younger youth that were passionate about the issue of water and prepared to engage in action projects in their own communities. Congratulations to CAWST!! I think the youth were inspired and informed after this event and will be able to achieve great success in implementing their projects in their own communities.

I also met with JR, our West Coast Online Community Connector who works with Child and Youth Friendly Calgary. It was great to get a bit of context from him about the current opportunities available to youth in Calgary. I hope that the next time I visit, we will be able to work collaboratively in an event of some sort. Was great to meet a CLC team member in person too 

November 30, 2007 | 2:33 PM Comments  0 comments

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